BRIAN MAY & FRIENDS:
EDWARD VAN HALEN, ALAN GRATZER, PHIL CHEN AND FRED MANDEL.
"Star Fleet Project" mini LP
click on the images to see more detailed scans...
STOP! What you have just picked up is not your normal kind of album. Not an album which has been "thoughtfully pieced together by a co-ordinated band as a balanced and polished listening experience." Not a Queen album. Not a solo Brian May album. It is a record of a unique event.
On the 21st and 22nd April 1983, five musicians from different backgrounds, who had previously known each other only as friends, played together for the first time. Purely for fun. In listening to this record, I hope you will share in the excitement we felt.
STAR FLEET is the theme tune for a superb t.v. sci-fi series broadcast in England for kids of all ages; Japanese visuals and British soundtrack including music by Paul Bliss. The heroes pilot space vehicles which can assemble into a giant robot for land battles. The aliens fly fantastic insect-like craft which spawn smaller fighting machines; all intent on possession of the secret of F Zero One… Having been introduced to all this by my small boy, I became equally obsessed by it, and formed the idea of making a hard rock version of the title theme.
A few months later I found myself in Los Angeles doing very little. I suddenly realised that four musicians, with whom I'd long wanted to play, were at the end of a local telephone call. To my great surprise, they all liked the ideas I had, so I took my courage in both hands, booked a studio, and in we went. None of us had done this kind of thing before - no record company, no plans for release, no back-up organizations - just us. Just for fun.
In STAR FLEET, recorded on the first day, you can hear a kind of nervous exhilaration. The new situation produced a strange and different kind of energy.
In LET ME OUT - an old song of mine which found new life - and in BLUES BREAKER, which of course is purely spontaneous, you can hear a much more relaxed set of people, just laying back and enjoying the fresh inspiration of each other's playing...
I could have put away these tapes in a bottom drawer and kept them as a private record of one of the best experiences of my life. But the few people I've played them for have urged me to "publish", and it will make me very happy if others can enjoy this stuff the way I have.
I've attempted to hone STAR FLEET into something like a "proper record" - my thanks to ROGER for helping me with the chorus vocals. But I haven't messed one scrap with the tracking done on the day. The rest is simply mixed 'naked'.
In BLUES BREAKER you can hear us smiling as we search for answering phrases. In the last solo of LET ME OUT, Edward tortures his top string to its audible death and winds up quite naturally on the remaining five. The rest I'll leave to imagination. It's not too hard to figure out who did what!
Thank You!! Enjoy!!!
BRIAN MAY
August, 1983
...or to put it another way - Brian May did NOT record the soundtrack to Star Fleet!! Twenty years ago I thought he had, and for a very long time I was convinced that there was an album featuring lots of music from the programme as I'd seen him promote it on a TV programme at the time. Alas, no such album exists - the sad reality is that this album does... Does that sound negative? Well, as far as I'm concerned this album is worth buying ONLY for the nice big pic of Dai-X on the front cover and the Imperial Alliance battle cruiser on the back. The music is really not my cup of tea - lengthy self-indulgent guitar solos? No ta! Hearing Brian May And Friends "smiling as we search for answering phrases" and Edward Van Halen "torturing his top string"?? Purleeeease!!
Thank You!! Attempt to enjoy!!!
DJ DUST
August, 2001
The "Star Fleet Project" LP is long deleted but don't believe anyone who says it's really rare - it's not at all.
If you're desperate for a copy - Ebay, the online auction site ALWAYS has it listed...
"Star Fleet" was also released as a 7" single (albeit in an edited form - the full version is 8 minutes long!!) The b-side was "Son Of Star Fleet" - an instrumental version...
click on the image to see a more detailed scan...
The album was only available on vinyl until 1992 when it was re-issued on CD as part of Brian May's "Back To The Light" single. There were two CD singles - the first (which came in a special pack with space for the second CD) featured "Star Fleet" and "Let Me Out". The second had "Blues Breaker" on it.
click on the image to see a more detailed scan...
There are also bootleg CD's of this album which crop up regularly on Ebay - they feature all five tracks from the mini LP, plus the 7" tracks as well. Someone must be making a fortune out of them...
